“We’re going to walk around town. You’re going to keep your eyes open and your mouth closed. There’s going to be a poker run then a wet short contest. If that doesn’t make you horny, they’re having a tattoo contest. The groupies get to count them. They collected money from them to buy a limited edition Gold Desert Eagle. Any man who has a dick will be there tonight, and so will we.”

“Free pussy and guns. That’s asking for trouble.” Penni’s anxious features had the men coming to a stop outside the café.

“You worried we can’t protect you?”

Her expression cleared at Hennessy’s wounded pride. “No.”

“I didn’t doubt you could. You all proved that last night.”

Jackal smiled, taking the compliment the way it was intended. The massive fight in the bar hadn’t left him with a hair out of place. That was more than one of Hennessy’s men couldn’t say the same.

They walked back to the hotel to their bikes. Penni’s searching the crowd as they began walking down the street had Jackal thinking she was finally taking the predicament she was in seriously. She at last had realized that finding Striker was a matter of life and death.

Hennessy chose two men to ride on the poker run as they remained in the hotel parking lot. Jackal knew he was hoping they would hear of someone who had a large supply of coke for sale. It wasn’t likely they would catch a break, but the longer Striker held on to the cache of drugs, the greater his chances of having them stolen or a cheese sniffer ratting him out.

Jackal was proud of Penni for sitting on the seat of his bike as the men stood there, talking with other clubs staying in the hotel. He could see the influence he’d had on her when she didn’t interrupt the conversations, despite the crude language they were using as women began mingling with the bikers.

It wasn’t the first rally he had gone to. With as experienced as he was, he was able to recognize which women were there for a good time or to fish for a new back to hang on to. The bikers at this rally were mostly there for fun and games, but if trouble showed up, they were ready for that, too.

“She yours?” One biker talking to Cruz nodded to Penni sitting sedately behind him.

“Yeah,” Jackal answered, waiting for a smart-ass comment from Penni. He wanted to kiss her when she remained silent. He didn’t count the snort he heard at his back. No one but him heard it.

“Lucky man.”

“I tell her that all the time.” Jackal knew he was egging her on, but he couldn’t help himself. Part of Penni’s attraction to him was her unwillingness to take any shit from him, unlike the whores who were beginning to outnumber the bikers.

“I lost my woman on the way here. She wouldn’t stop whining about missing the kids, so I dropped her off at a truck stop.”

“Mine knows better.” Jackal turned to see her about to break her vow of behaving.

Taking her hand so she could stand, Jackal sat down on the motorcycle seat. Breaking the taboo in his own code, he sat her down in front of him, his arm snaking around her waist, flattening his palms across her tummy.

“A smart man would patch her.”

“Jackal likes to keep his options open.” Penni circled her hands around his wrists yet didn’t twist away from his touch.

“Options are good.” A woman wearing a dress that was meant to be a beach cover-up smiled at him seductively. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Jackal could easily see her breasts and the naked pussy that was within easy reach.

Jackal felt Penni tense, and he lowered his chin to her shoulder.

“A man doesn’t need options when he has Penni. She’s a handful.” He tightened his arms around her. “She doesn’t need a patch; Penni knows who she belongs to.”

“What about them?” The biker nodded to the large group of bikers gathered around the parking lot.

“I can protect what’s mine.” Jackal stared at the biker who was measuring him up before his greedy gaze traveled down Penni’s body to where Jackal’s hands possessively rested on her belly. “We gonna have a problem?”

The biker got his message, shaking his head. “No problem. Like I said, you’re a lucky man.” He stepped away, unfortunately not taking the whore with him.

“My name’s Misty.”

“Jackal.”

“My name is Penni.”

Misty ignored her, her fingers tracing down the sleeve of his leather jacket. “I’ve heard of the Predators.” She dropped her hand down to his thigh. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Jackal pushed her hand away. “No.”

She pouted. “We could have a good time.”

“Fuck off.”

Her face fell. “Could have been fun.”

Jackal didn’t watch as she disappeared.

“Don’t let me stop you from having fun.”

“I am having fun; can’t you tell?”

Her infectious giggle had him smiling down at her.

“Smiling isn’t your best feature,” she commented.

“Max says that all time, but I tell him he’s just jealous.”

“I don’t think Casey would agree.”

Seeing Penni loosen up had him wanting to carry her into the hotel and lock the door. Jackal would rather be fucking her than forced to sit next to her while Hennessy and the Road Kingz tried to find out if anyone was hustling in large amounts of coke. Jackal thought they stood a better chance of getting arrested from an undercover cop.

The bikers became more boisterous as the day dragged on. When it began to get dark, Jackal walked with Penni into the park where a stage had been set up. There were at least thirty women waiting for the wet short contest.

“Want to join in?” He joked at her wide-eyed stare. Jackal knew it wasn’t the mostly shirtless male bikers crowding around the stage that had her attention. The women even made him look.

He ran a hand across the back of his neck. Jesus, it looked like a tit-fest.

“I thought it was a wet ‘short’ contest.”

“It is. That’s why they can’t wear anything else.”

“I didn’t know a thong is considered a pair of shorts.” Penni stared at him accusingly.

Jackal held his hands up. “Hey, it wasn’t my idea.”

“Most of those women look drunk. You’re gonna watch, though, aren’t you?”

He turned his head to where the women were waiting for their turn. “Damn straight.”

Laughing, he dodged the fist that was aimed at his shoulder.

“Don’t worry; none of them can hold a candle to you.”

She quit hitting him. “Like you’re ever going to see my boobs.”

Jackal watched her cross her arms in front of her chest.

“Afraid you can’t measure up to the competition?”

“Good things come in tiny packages,” she said stiffly.

“Yes, they do. Don’t worry; I saw the picture Casey sent Max. Believe me; you have more than enough for me. If you were up there, you would win my vote.” Jackal’s attempt to placate Penni backfired when Hennessy looked her over critically.

“He’s right; you should do it.”

“Not in a million years.” Penni glared at Hennessy with a mask of resolution.